Reading and reflecting on Mary Oliver's poems, one poem each day for a year

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Who Said This

Something whispered something

that was not even a word.

It was more like a silence

that was understandable.

I was standing

at the edge of the pond.

Nothing living, what we call living,

was in sight.

And yet, the voice entered me,

my body-life,

with so much happiness.

And there was nothing there

but the water, the sky, the grass.

Once when on a plane traveling back from conservation work in Guatemala, a voice entered me.I had been spending all morning out tramping through the grass of cow pastures, climbing, protecting, and loving parrots and their nest trees.The final nest inspected before I sped to the capital city to board the plane contained two chicks whose parents had died or abandoned the nest. They were hungry and thin, and were bound to die if we did not intervene.They were much in my heart as I sat on the plane reading my veterinary journals.The voice spoke my name, "Kim" and continued to call out to me. I never did discover who said the word, but I had gotten up and inspected every inch of the cabin and there was no one there whom I knew.I suspect though that the voice was someone I knew, my inner wisdom which is the love of earth and all her beings. The voice told me to move to Guatemala and at first I refused. But by the end of the conversation I relented, and such an overwhelming since of love came to me and staid for many months. In that moment I knew that there was nothing more important than love.There was nothing else there in my life that mattered, except the expression of love. This moment of "awakes on a plane" altered my body-life and has directed me sometimes in no more than a whisper over the nearly 20 years since.

What voice has come to you to tell you of wisdom?Has it whispered, laughed, or screamed?

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WELCOME

Thank you for visiting this site! I began this blog in January of 2010 and reflected on one poem of Mary's a day. This was a 15 month plus journey to discover the face of reality as expressed in the world of nature and human cultures on the face of this planet. This choice, a form of nature spirituality practice, relied on the help of Mary Oliver by reflecting upon her entire collection of poems over the period of a year. Every morning as the sun rose, or more likely well before, I read a poem, reflected, meditated, journaled, and then shared my thoughts with you here. I'd be delighted to share this journey with others as you come to this blog now, and in the future.

I then took nearly two years off, and am now journeying again with Mary with her latest book, "A Thousand Mornings." My dream would that Mary would keep writing so that this blog will have reflected 1000 morning and 1000 poems.

I began with her earliest poems in New and Selected Poems Volume 1, and then read Volume 2. After that I read her books in chronological order. You can read along with me in this book and post your comments here.

I choose Mary Oliver because I believe her work captures the grieving world in all it's beauty, which "announces your place in the family of things" (Wild Geese).

About Me

I am a Certified Trainer in Nonviolent Communication, a Unitarian Universalist minister, and a veterinarian specializing in in avian conservation medicine (mostly in Central America). My goal is to foster compassionate communication in our communities of mixed species so that all beings may flourish.

Update - Twittering With Mary during April and May 2010

During April and May of 2011 I was traveling around Central America with marginal capacity to connect to the internet. I used mobile devices to tweet into this blog to keep in touch as I continued to read daily one Mary Oliver poem and reflect upon it. I took only one book with me as I worked in the La Moskitia area in Honduras, and it was Mary's poems. To follow my musings during that time, check the twitter entries down below.